Wolf Bands are playing again! I love wolf bands!!! When can I see a wolf band?!?!?

The month that has been declared as “Rocktober” kicks off this week, and despite the fact that many of our good friends are trapped in Vegas for a an expensive schmooze-fest with the indie rock elite, and I’m still kind of bummed that I won’t be able to escape to LA for what appears to be the greatest line up for a single show ever! But, I digress, this is still kind of a “Holy Crap!” week here in the bay area, filled with some pretty special stuff. Take a look!

This band has gotten a lot of grief over the years, as does anyone under the banner of “emo.” Well, yes, these guys are pretty emotional. They also put on one of the most intense and cathartic live sets of any band that I have ever witnessed. This show will be epic catharsis on a grand scale.

They’ve done it again. Every year, this free, multi-stage outdoor music festival blows all the other ones out of the water. We’ve got the entire spectrum of music here, all hiding under the banner of American roots music. Some especially rare highlights include a Friday evening set by T-Bone Burnett, joined by Karen Elson & The Punch Brothers, as well as a super group featuring Boz Scaggs, Michael McDonald, and Donald Fagen, Exene Cervenka doing a rare solo set on Saturday, and on Sunday you get the crazy quadruple shot of Randy Newman, Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, and Mondo Cane (FNM’s Mike Patton doing Italian ballads) all playing back to back of each other. (On two different stages that are, indeed, back to back)

I’ve mused about this band many times on this site, including this epic piece. They are unbelievable, and everyone needs to see them at least 100 times before they die. On top of that, though, is this killer set of opening acts. Ariel Pink does a royally disturbing version on pop music, and Thee Of Sees are one of the best freak out garage rock acts playing these days. Only a complete idiot (like me) didn’t buy tickets right away for this show. (I had my hopes set of review tickets from one of these wonderful openers. Alas, no love lost), so I’m gonna be scouring Craigslist the next few days to get into this show. (Or the next one on 10/2)

What does it take to get Tom Waits to make a public appearance? An evening of pure insanity, of course! This event is all in tribute to one of San Francisco’s finest sons, as well as the last living beat, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and in addition to Mr Waits, we will also be getting appearances by Patti Smith & Lenny Kaye, Beth Lisick, The Marcus Shelby Quartet, and the number one high school crush of every male in my general age bracket, Winona Ryder. How cool is that, huh?

General Elektriks is local legends Honeycut’s spastic dancing keyboardist. His crazy, funky, solo work is out of this world awesome, and only made more awesomer by getting to warm up the crowd for Brazilian electronic music groundbreakers Gotan Project.

Japan just breeds crazy music. Guitar Wolf is a legendary band from the land of the rising sun, and they’ve spent for little time stateside. This show is a rare opportunity to see these guys live, and if you miss it, you might as well dig out your eardrums and sell them on the black market.

This is a free event, and it’s also at capacity. What is it, you might ask? Well, a performance by the great Andrew WK and his foxy wife Cherie Lily, doing some music and burlesque, as well as a wide variety of entertainers doing acrobatics, contortion, comedy, and all sorts of nonesuch.